A kind of veranda, formed by the thatched roof, adorned the
outside, supported upon wooden pillars, which had some
pretensions to being carved. Long lines of dark-red clay
decorated the walls in characters that strove to reproduce
the forms of men and serpents, the latter better
imitated, of course, than the former. The roofing of this
abode did not rest directly upon the walls, and the air
could, therefore, circulate freely, but windows there were
none, and the door hardly deserved the name.
Dr. Ferguson was received with all the honors by the
guards and favorites of the sultan; these were men of a
fine race, the Wanyamwezi so-called, a pure type of the
central African populations, strong, robust, well-made, and
in splendid condition. Their hair, divided into a great
number of small tresses, fell over their shoulders, and by
means of black-and-blue incisions they had tattooed their
cheeks from the temples to the mouth. Their ears, frightfully
distended, held dangling to them disks of wood and
plates of gum copal. They were clad in brilliantly-painted
cloths, and the soldiers were armed with the saw-toothed
war-club, the bow and arrows barbed and poisoned with
the juice of the euphorbium, the cutlass, the "sima," a long
sabre (also with saw-like teeth), and some small battle-axes.
Pages:
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156